The claims of Kiril Petkov that on July 8, 2022, he opened the interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria are unfounded, since by that date the construction of the gas connection had not yet been completed both technically and documentaryly.
This is stated in an official position from the press center of President Rumen Radev (2017-2026) in connection with today's publication on social networks of the former co-chair of "We continue the change".
Here is the rest of the statement:
The gas interconnector between Bulgaria and Greece was completed by the caretaker government of Galab Donev and put into commercial operation on October 1, 2022, with the ceremony in Sofia attended by the President of the EC Ursula Von der Leyen, heads of state and government of the countries in the region.
The explanations for the termination of contractual relations with “Gazprom" from the government of Kiril Petkov do not give an answer why other EU member states continue to receive natural gas supplies under their contracts today, unlike Bulgaria.
Kiril Petkov may have contracted 7 tankers with liquefied natural gas at an extremely high price, but not slots for their unloading either in Greece or Turkey. This forced the caretaker government of Galab Donev to deal with the inherited energy crisis and agreements by securing a slot for the unloading of one of these tankers at the "Botas" terminal in the fall of 2022. 670,000 mwh of this supply continues to be stored by "Botas" to this day at the price agreed by the government of Kiril Petkov of 363 BGN/mwh or 185.60 euros. This gas is 6 times more expensive than today's price of 32.30 euros/mwh and is absolutely unsellable, costing "Bulgargaz" 243 million leva.
Instead of provoking a scandal, good behavior requires Kiril Petkov to thank “Botaş" for continuing to store the expensive and unsellable gas it purchased.
With their statements, politicians from "We Continue the Change" are trying to construct alternative causal relationships between the events of recent years and are completely at odds with the facts.